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Tales by Vladimir Suteev. The petulant cat I translated this little tale by myself. This is the eighth story from the storybook that I'm going to translate as a practice. Any corrections are very welcome :) A girl had sat and drawn pictures. On a sudden the tabby cat came ant started to watch what a girl did. - What are you doing? - asked the curious cat. - I'm drawnig a house for you, - said the girl. - Look: here is a roof, here is a chimney and this is a door. - But what will I do there? - You will fire a stove and will cook porridge. And a girl drew the smpke pouring from a chimney. - But where is a window? Because cats jump through windows! - Here are windows for you. One, two, three, four... - said a girl and drew four windows. - But where will I walk? - Right here. A girl drew a fence around a house. - That will be a garden, - she said. A cat looked and fuffed. - What a garden is that?! There is nothing! - Wait a minute, - said a girl. Here is the flowered bed for you, here is an appletree with apples and here are the beds of vegetables: carrots grow here and cabbages grow there. Cabbages? - a cat made a wry face. - But where will I fish? - Right here... And a girl drew a pond with fishes inside. - That is good... And will birds live there? - asked the curious cat. - I like birds. - They will. Here is a hen for you, here is a rooster, here is a goose and here are three chickens. In that moment a cat licked her lips, purred and asked very quietly: - Well... Will there mice live... in the house?.. - No, they will not. - But who will guard my house? - It will be guarded by... - a girl drew the doghouse. - Will be guarded by this Bobik! A cat yanked her tail and her hair stood on end by some reason. - I don't like your house, - a cat said. - I don't want to live there! And she walked away as so she was offended. What a petulant cat!

Corrections · 2

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Pleased to meet you. I'm new to this so I'm not sure how the correction feature works, and my Russian is not very good - I've been trying to learn for about a year but do not know any native speakers so it has been slow-going. Pretty much everything I attempt to read ends up being double-checked in Google Translate, to give you an idea where my (paltry) skill level is. My English is above normal for native speakers, however, so I hope you're willing to do a little bit of knowledge exchange. My side notes within the story are in [brackets].

Before I begin: Since prepositions (the, a, an) do not exist in Russian, I can see you're having some trouble. Using "a" implies there is a generic one of something, e.g. "a girl" means some unspecified or unknown young female, "a practice" means an instance of sitting down and practicing. Using "the" implies that the person knows about the item/person in question, so after introducing "a girl" in the story we would then use "the girl" to refer to her since she's now known to the reader. We would only use "a girl" again to introduce a second young female character to the story later, since that second girl would be unknown to us. Below, pay particular attention to the first time the girl and cat (and even the chimney) are introduced with "a" and thereafter are referred to with "the".

Also, in English we use "double quotes" to denote speaking. That will probably take some getting used to. :)


Tales by Vladimir Suteev. The Petulant Cat [Titles are always capitalized in English.]

I translated this little tale by myself. This is the eighth story from the storybook that I'm going to translate as practice. Any corrections are very welcome :)

A girl had sat and drawn pictures.
Suddenly a tabby cat came and started to watch what the girl did.
"What are you doing?" asked the curious cat.
"I'm drawing a house for you," said the girl. "Look: here is a roof, here is a chimney, and this is a door."
"But what will I do there?"
"You will fire a stove and cook porridge." [Only one "will" needed, it's implied for the second action. Having a second one sounds awkward to a native speaker.]
And the girl drew the smoke pouring from the chimney.
"But where is the window? Because cats jump through windows!" [This "the" appears to ignore the rule I mentioned above. It does so because the cat is looking for a specific instance of a window and cannot find it.]
"Here are windows for you. One, two, three, four..." said the girl and drew four windows.
"But where will I walk?"
"Right here."
The girl drew a fence around the house.
"That will be a garden," she said.
The cat looked and huffed. [I'm not sure what was meant by "fuff", but I think "huff" works here as an annoyed exhalation. Google Translate says "snorted" which is usually derisive rather than annoyed, you could go either way.]
"What kind of garden is that?! There is nothing!" ["What kind of (something) is that?" is a common expression for saying the thing you're looking at is entirely inadequate for what it is supposed to be.]
"Wait a minute," said the girl. "Here is the flowerbed for you, here is an apple tree with apples, and here are the beds of vegetables: carrots grow here and cabbages grow there."
"Cabbages?" The cat grimaced. "But where will I fish?" [I learned something here. "Wry" is usually mocking or sarcastic, while "a wry face" is apparently a grimace. I had no idea, I only knew the first definition. For this reason I'd go with just plain "grimace" here as more English speakers will understand it.]
"Right here..."
And the girl drew a pond with fish inside. ["Fishes" is archaic (i.e. Bible times); even when referring to multiple breeds of fish the common usage today is just "fish." This is one of those weird words in English where a mass of something is referred to like a single one of that something, similar to how English handles the word "rice" - a grain of rice or a plate of rice, a fish on a plate or several fish in a net.]
"That is good... and will birds live there?" Asked the curious cat. "I like birds."
"They will. Here is a hen for you, here is a rooster, here is a goose and here are three chickens."
In that moment a cat licked her lips, purred and asked very quietly:
"Well... will mice live there... in the house?" [I'm still having trouble with the order of там with other words in the sentence, makes sense that you put "there" in the wrong spot.]
"No, they will not."
"But who will guard my house?"
"It will be guarded by..." the girl drew a doghouse. "Will be guarded by this Bobik!"
The cat's tail and hair stood on end for some reason. [I think "the cat pulled/yanked her tail" must be a Russian saying? I'm quite amused by it. But we don't have an equivalent in English.]
"I don't like your house," the cat said. "I don't want to live there!"
And she walked away like she was offended.
What a petulant cat!
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Капризная кошка Девочка сидела за столом и рисовала картинки. Вдруг пришла полосатая Кошка и стала смотреть, что делает Девочка. — Что это ты делаешь? — спросила любопытная Кошка. — Я рисую для тебя домик, — сказала Девочка. — Смотри: вот крыша, вот труба на ней, а это дверь… — А что я там буду делать? — Будешь печку топить, кашу варить. И Девочка нарисовала, как из трубы домика идёт дым. — А где окошко? Ведь кошка прыгает в окошко! — Вот тебе окошки. Раз, два, три, четыре… — сказала Девочка и нарисовала четыре окна. — А где я гулять буду? — Вот тут. Девочка нарисовала забор вокруг домика. — Это будет сад, — сказала она. Кошка посмотрела и фыркнула: — Какой же это сад? Тут ничего нет!.. — Подожди, — сказала Девочка. — Вот тебе клумба с цветами, вот яблоня с яблоками, а здесь огород: тут морковка растёт и капуста растёт… — Капуста! — поморщилась Кошка. — А где я буду рыбку ловить? — Вот здесь… И Девочка нарисовала пруд, а в пруду рыбок. — Это хорошо… А птички будут? — спросила любопытная Кошка. — Я люблю птичек. — Будут. Вот тебе курочка, вот петушок, вот гусь, а вот и три цыплёнка… Тут Кошка вдруг облизнулась, замурлыкала и тихо-тихо спросила: — Ну… а мышки там будут… в домике? — Нет, мышей не будет. — А кто будет мой домик сторожить? Его будет сторожить… — Девочка нарисовала будку. — Будет сторожить вот этот Бобик! Кошка даже хвостом дёрнула, и шерсть у неё почему-то дыбом встала. — Не нравится мне твой домик, — сказала Кошка. — Не хочу я там жить!.. И ушла, будто её обидели. Вот какая капризная Кошка!

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